


Beyond The Gate

by Outre_nar_Ficta_Orbis



Category: Darker Than Black
Genre: Gen, Mystery, OC, OCs - Freeform, Original Characters - Freeform, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 05:26:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7702420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Outre_nar_Ficta_Orbis/pseuds/Outre_nar_Ficta_Orbis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You can try, with all of your might, to stay out of sight and out of trouble. But things are not as easy as they once were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Masked Man

Silence had fallen over the city, as it only could in the latest part of the night. Standing on top of an office building, the silence was broken only by blaring sirens that echoed and screamed into the emptiness – the banshees of the city, shrieking and shattering the illusion of metropolitan slumber.

Listening to the noise come up from the streets below, I imagined that the cops had to be close, no more than a few blocks away. My window to escape was closing rapidly, my time being reduced to seconds – or if I was lucky – minutes. Damn those stars, if they did not light the way, then I could have patience – every action would not have an imposed time limit; I would be able to talk my time. Close calls have become a common thing for me, and if I hadn’t learnt to plan escapes routes with an insane kind of mathematical precision, the cops would have surely had me long ago. I feared what would happen the day they caught up with me; it was likely that I’d be dead, or worse – I could be sent back to that damned gate, for whatever purposes those sick monsters thought was useful.

Pausing for a moment, I took in a deep breath, locking my sights on the neighbouring building. I ran for it, placing one final firm foot on the very edge of the building to propel the jump, rolling on contact with the new rooftop. Red hair whipped around my face as I came to a standing position again, my eyes studying the distance I had travelled in only a few short seconds. My job used to stay countries away from the attention of any agency – that was the kind of service I offered – but now it was all I could do to stay that single step ahead of even the local law enforcement. If things had stayed the way they were before, none of this would be necessary – there would be no cops following my every move in real time.

Shifting, I took off for another rooftop – a rooftop that I knew had an open stairwell entrance – my sneakers squeaking a few times against the concrete roof as I thought ahead. In my mind, I could already see myself down the stairs and out into the thin crowds, blending in the with those few that still drifted through the streets so late at night, completely invisible to those that forever chased me.

Near the edge of the building, before I could make the next jump, something snagged the back of my jacket, upsetting my balance and pulling me back to the reality that escapes were never as easy in life as they were on paper. I stopped with a bit of a skid, turning to detach my clothing, then pulled back – _fast_.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed at the dark figure that had appeared from the void. He stepped forward, away from the shadowy features of the building; the light from the streets below barely coming up far enough to show the white mask on his face as I felt my skin crawl under his glare. Carefully I stepped back, placing a hand over the weapon that I kept at my waist, watching the man who towered over me with keen teal eyes.

“Just hand over the information.” His voice inflected a tone of the icy depths, a tone that became a Contractor. I scoffed a little in my head as I thought of the man as a Contractor. ‘Contractor’ used to be a perfectly normal term; now it was the name given by humans to the heartless killing machines that had human faces and powers beyond anything the rest of humanity could measure against. To me, it was a name that changed a dangerous meeting on a dark rooftop into something a whole lot worse.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied sharply, copying his tone to a tee. “Obviously you’ve come running at the wrong human’s command.” A small silver blade flashed into his had as he stepped towards me, his white mask showing nothing but coldness in the dark slits that gave the appearance of eyes. What an arrogant killer this man was. Automatically my foot shifted backwards, my grip tightening on the weapon at my waist. It was a small weapon, something that wouldn’t do much good against a contractor, but it was better than surrendering… or even going to unarmed.

“Hand over the information. You know you can’t win this fight.” Yeah, I knew I didn’t stand a chance against him, my brain already buzzed with a thousand bees that sung the same stupid line of contractor logic. I wouldn’t have lasted this long however, if I allowed something like that decide which actions I should take – especially now that I could no longer hear sirens.

“Better luck next time!” I shouted at him and took off in a sprint, pushing for the neighbouring roof with everything I had. Let him get caught by the cops instead, he could no longer waste my time and they’d have their contractor; it was two-birds-with-one-tone and a win for me. Pushing as hard as I could against the edge of the building, I jumped, spotting a silver blade slice through the air above me as I rolled across the new rooftop.

Without thinking, I made a grab for it as I stood once again, barely noticing a slight tug on the handle. Holding the weapon out as if it was my own, I turned to face the previous building. An eerie blue glow flooded the rooftops as I glared back over at the man. Hair stood up on the back of my neck instantly, my eyes widening as I saw him holding onto something in the air that I couldn’t see from this distance. Buzzing with a sense of danger, I flung the blade away, a sharp shock passing into my hand barely seconds after the blade had left. My hand hurt like hell, and in the face of screaming in pain as whatever had hit me continued up my arm, that trademark numbness of a contractor settled over my body. With it I saw the lesson the pain taught me – saw it like a missing piece of the puzzle – it told me who the dangerous man was.

Suddenly he was hurdling towards me, running faster than I had to make the leap across the gap. I moved back quickly, unblinking as he continued forward, knowing that the few seconds it would take me to draw my weapon could mean life or death. Knowing that, if he came with arm’s reach, I could destroy him. When the man suddenly stopped, less than a stride from the edge, I almost collapsed – a black cat had leapt between us, now standing on the edge of the other roof. The masked contractor looked down at the cat for a moment, then looked over his shoulder before vanishing through the same dark spot of the roof he had appeared. Seconds later cops spilled onto the roof, weapons ready.

Cursing, I ducked as bullets whizzed past, darting for cover, huffing for breath as a secondary thought popped into my mind: They came out of the wrong building. Leaning sideways, I paused to judge the timing to dart out and make for the stairway to freedom. My sneaker squeaked faintly as I stopped in the same second I was about to run – something buzzing to life in my pocket. Another curse on the tip of my tongue, I answered the cell phone, the annoyance in my tone make the answer bitting.

“Dan. The cops are on your tail,” the voice spoke in a monotone, in a way I’d only heard a doll commit to. Dolls, they annoyed me to no end – the primest examples of weakness – they had no free will of their own, just to get them to look after themselves you had to program it in. They weren’t killers; they were observers, like a child’s toy that gets thrown away once it has outlived its usefulness.

“I know that, Cai! They have me pinned down!” I exclaimed down the phone line as more bullets whizzed past.

“They think you are BK-201. They want what was taken.”

“Will you tell me something useful?” There was a fumbling sound over the phone and another voice took over speaking, cutting the nonsense and relaying all the details Cai could give about the cops’ position. Xiao finished quickly, and I hung up the phone with a sigh. The net was closing around me very rapidly tonight, the cops believed they could keep my pinned up here, and already they were splitting up to send forces into this building, bricking closed my only exit.

I had one more chance to get out of here before I was cornered and shot to death… or arrested.

Hesitating for one last moment, I moved, using what cover I could as I made my way to the stairwell. Inside I ran down three or four stairs at a time, desperate to beat the cops out onto the street where escape should be easier. A small seed of doubt inside me worried that my information was incorrect; the cops may already be down on the street, and I’d have a harder time getting away than I’d had on the roof – no matter how fast I could fly down a bunch of stairs, on foot I wasn’t anywhere near fast enough once they returned to their cars.

Tearing out of the door at the ground floor, I made from the street, stopping in the middle to get my bearings. The police car lights flashed and coloured everything red and blue, yet no voice cried out, no bullets tore through my skin – they were not here yet. A screech of tires sounded down the street, and I spun around only just managing to jump out of the way as a dark coloured sports car pulled up. Recognizing the growling voice of the driver, I dove into the car and it took off as fast as it had appeared leaving the cops far behind us.


	2. Back to the Day Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You can try, with all of your might, to stay out of sight and out of trouble. But things are not as easy as they once were.

“Good job get that info, kid, the bosses were pleased that we didn’t screw up this time.” A middle aged dark skinned man muttered, flicking slowly through the pages of the newspaper in front of him as if he was reading it. Xiao didn’t look back across the benches at us as he spoke, I had to glance over my shoulder to know that he was even talking to me, though that cliché scarf and hat combination he sported like it was the middle of winter made it more difficult that it should have been.

“Those jerks still think we can’t get anything done right, I hate that,” I muttered back, returning to the pretend task of furiously cleaning a pair of glasses that were nothing more than a fashion accessory. Cai shifted beside me, her smaller hands wrapping around my arms as she pretended to be a younger sister cuddling up to her beloved older sister. Xiao chuckled from his seat on the other bench, flicking to the next page of his newspaper.

“Isn’t it common knowledge that Contractors don’t have emotions, dear? Don’t get your panties in a twist, it’s not like you’ve been doing much to prove them wrong.” Cai’s hands seemed to be holding me back now, rather than the warm touch of a pretend sister I had imagined they were before.

“Contractors aren’t Dolls, they still fell things.” I let him hear in my voice just how dishusted I was with such a statement. “Now, did you have a point in calling us here, or do you just like having me around when you imagine my panties?” There was a moment of silence, then a large envelope slid through the back of the seats. Surrendering the task of pretending to care about the glasses, I returned them to my face, freeing my hands to capture the envelope and pry out its contents.

“That’s the police report from the other night; apparently you got the attention of some important people.” Xiao didn’t bother to mention how he had put his hands on the report, and I didn’t care enough to ask; if there was one good thing about the man, it was that he had a way with intel like nobody else I had ever known. “It’s been handed around the ‘Foreign Affairs’ office, and those people have a nose for Contractors like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Not as good as they think. They ‘suspect’ I’m that masked fool, BK-201.” I chuckled, thinking of how easily he had given up on our fight, ignoring the small prang of stupidity that sounded from somewhere deep inside of me for thinking the man dangerous enough to defeat me.

“The bosses want you to go after him.” My small moment of laughter was interrupted when Xiao relayed this news. I spun to a sideways position on the bench, forcing Cai to release my arm before my movement pulled her from the seat.

“What? Why would they want that, what’s so important about that man?”

“He knows too much,” Xiao growled in reply, his head turning so I could see him shoot me a dirty look. I shifted to a more ‘normal’ position on the seat, hating the feeling Xiao gave me; he looked at me like a child that would not cease its misbehaving.

“He is a Contractor, they all know too much,” I grumbled, feeling a chill as I was sure that it wouldn’t be too long at all before those very words were being used against me. That was an undeniable part of my life now – the life of a Contractor; the moment they knew more than their worth they became completely unusable. I held onto a ray of hope that I would live to see the day they turned on me.

“Look, kid, I’m not here to argue with you. My orders were to pass this on to you.” Xiao folded up his newspaper and stood up. “What you do with your orders is your problem; just don’t drag me down with you.” And with that, he left, blending into the flow of humans and disappearing from sight. I stayed seated for a moment longer, pondering not the orders he had left me, but his final comment before leaving. That man had sounded so sure that something would happen, and he had not hidden his wish to be kept from it.

Standing sharply, I took Cai’s hand from its place on her lap, and lead her in the opposite direction that Xiao had gone. To anyone that looked at us, we were likely to simply be seen as sisters, enjoying the warmer weather that had moved in – in another universe it may have been true. I doubted that such a brightly coloured place could still exist, and instead of enjoying the day as sisters would, I continued to hold the doll’s hand, leading her back to place where she would not expose us to those who call themselves normal.

The route we – I – took to the place poorly known as Cai’s was longer than most would have normally taken; a path that would make it harder for others to guess the correct destination. I kept my eyes open for trouble, teal scanning for something unfitting with the environment we passed through. As much as I knew that our cover was more than adequate to fool the average human, there were those out there who had the skills to spot us for what we really were, and would come after us with violent plans in mind. There was also the issue of how BK-201 had come to be on that same rooftop the other night, and armed only with Cai, I wished not to find out soon how that had happened.

It wasn’t that long ago that I had fended off those who had wished to do me personal harm – though long enough that this trio of mismatched piece had not yet been a concept in the thoughts of those who believe they control it all. When it had happened, I fell easily into their ambush, and found that I lacked the skill to escape them conventionally. With no other means of escape, and my life under severe threat, I remember vividly the way blue light had coloured their faces. My attackers were erased from the face of existence in the blue glow of the unnatural, while I paid a steep price.

“Dan, you are acting too human,” Cai chimed in, her voice a dull sound even compared to the monotone of existence. Standing before us now was the small apartment building Cai had been programmed to call home. Annoyed at her comment, I forcefully released her hand, glaring.

“What would you know? You are not my keeper, and a poor judge,” I grumbled, pushing her towards the buildings entrance.

“Sometimes I wonder,” Cai muttered, too loud for it to have meant to be unheard, before turning her back full and entering the building. I blinked repeatedly at the door, shocked at what I had just thought I had heard. Since when had Cai been able to back-mouth like that; had someone programed her to do that? Surely that kind of thing would be in the average dolls programming.

Muttering some choice cursed under my breath, I pulled my jacket hood over my head, leaving quickly. It felt like storm clouds had rolled in, running what I sensed could have otherwise been a nice day. The sky remained unchanged though, surprisingly independent from my mood, and the ruin I would soon have to bring – once I decided what the best action was concerning _those_ orders.


	3. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You can try, with all of your might, to stay out of sight and out of trouble. But things are not as easy as they once were.

Keeping my head down, I took some of the more notably busy streets as I made my way back to my apartment. It was easier this way for me to blend into the crowds and lose any potential followers, hostile or not. Once I had spent enough time in the crowd, I would leave for the solitude of my apartment. There I will be able to prepare for the next few days, for hunting down and removing a man that knew too much. Imagining seeing BK-201’s masked face again sent a shiver down my spine, he was a formidable opponent, much more than my usual target.

Turning a corner to an empty street, I didn’t notice another person approaching until I bumped into them, the force it allowing me to make a convincing fall onto the ground – rather than my reflex which would have been to throw my palm up into their jaw.

“Oh my, I am so sorry,” came the soft voice of the stranger, and looking up I saw a young man with black hair and a green jacket. He extended his hand to me, a bashful expression twisting his features. “Here, let me help you up.”

“No, it was my fault,” I replied in a small voice, taking his hand and allowing him to help me to my feet. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.” We stood together awkwardly for a moment before saying goodbye and heading off in our separate directions.

A few blocks later, I saw standing outside my apartment building, the beautiful façade of the building in complete contrast to the inside. There was that strange feeling of eyes on my back as I walked towards the door, but as I glanced around I saw nobody around. I couldn’t shrug off the feeling though, even as I entered the building and took a flight of stairs to the second floor. Coming to the door of my apartment, I noticed a leak in the roof by the door, and following the water down the wall with my eyes. Water pooled on the hard floor against the wall, I gave it a disgusted look before turning back to open my apartment, making a note to let the landlord know of it. I had only half turned the key when something caught my eye.

Something had appeared in the puddle, and it went to disappear again as I turned to it, but it was already too late, I’d seen what the thing was. It was a Spectre, the transparent form of a doll in observer mode – but whose doll? My heart racing, I hurried into the apartment, throwing closed the door behind me, and grabbing the knife from the counter. There had been someone following me, someone who knew that I would come back here, and that someone knew of the dolls powers. Bad luck seems to follow me everywhere these days. Slowly I stepped backwards towards the wall opposite the door, keeping the window there in the corner of my eye, and close enough to escape through. There was a terrible crunching sound as the door flew open again, slamming into the wall; I cringed, the landlord was sure to lecture me about the damage.

The figure that entered through the doorway had my blood simmer that bit closer to boiling; he wore that white mask I would recognize anywhere.

“BK-201,” I hissed, changing my grip on the knife so it would be easier to cause him fatal injuries.

“Eraser, where is the information?” He questioned through the mask, using the nickname I had been unable to shake off since long before I became a Contractor, it seemed somethings would always stay the same.

“Seriously, you’re still after that?” I laughed, flashing a tight smile, sure that he was scowling at me from under the mask. “Okay, I’ll tell you… but you’ll have to kill me first!” Lunging forward, I aimed the knife at his gut, but he was fast dodging the attack and countering with one fluid movement. Pulling up quickly and swinging away, I managed to only let that blade of his nick my arm.

 _‘Shit, he is fast,’_ I thought, watching for his next move as I circled him, trying to position myself nearer to some of the other dangerous items I had stuffed in the apartment. I wasn’t ready for his next move though, and he caught me completely off guard as he threw the blade in his hand, causing the thin wire attached to the handle to wrap around my throat.

Panicking slightly, I gasped in pain as the blade dropped pulling the wire tighter. There was no way I could get away like this, my fingers unable to break the wire’s hold on my throat, and the wire too strong for the knife still in my hand. Desperate, I threw the knife at him, but he simply moved sideways, adding more tension to the wire and forcing my feet to shift forward.

“Where is it?” echoed the Contractor’s voice. Inside my head, contractor logic buzzed at me, stating that continuation was more important than the cause. True but cowardly logic, I ignored it and made my choice.

“Somewhere you’ll… never find it…” I spat, struggling to breathe more as I pulled tighter on the wire. If I could pull hard enough, suddenly, I’d be able to falter his grip – dropping back suddenly should be enough to give me that kind of effect. Before I could move, BK-201 started to flow that Contractor Blue, the only warning I had over what he intended to do. Things played before me in slow motion, the blue glow increased around the man, and I felt something dangerous charging towards me. Reaching my hands up, I clawed at my throat, fingernails trying to pull the wire from my flesh but it was too late, and I cried out as I played the final card dealt to me.


	4. Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You can try, with all of your might, to stay out of sight and out of trouble. But things are not as easy as they once were.

Panting, my body moving backwards with permission, until it pressed back against a wall. A hand of mine touched my throat, still pained and bloody from the wire that had dug into it a moment before. I could hear my brain whirling as I recovered from the shock of my own actions – I’d sworn never to use that power since then. The current moment however, was not the time to think about that, as a twined blade cut into the wall beside my head. Shifting away, my heart started to pound faster as I let a bit of panic flood my system, knowing that my payment would strike me soon, and with the masked BK-201 still around it would spell worse than disaster for me.

Pushing off from the wall, I ran at the man, grabbing the twined blade that had dropped to the floor earlier, and twisting it up to run through his gut. He once again proved faster than me, dodging that move, and the one I made after that before catching my wrist with a gloved hand. Tightening his grip on my wrist, it shot pain into my hand automatically opening it and dropping the blade once more to the ground. He then pulled my wrist above my head, leaning down to look me in the eyes – or at least that was what I figured he was doing.

“One last chance, where’d you hide that information you stole?” It was odd to have his face this close to mine and yet not be able to feel his breath as he spoke. I glared at him, trying to hold the typical Contractor like coldness over my features.

“You think I’ll tell you? The Syndicate will kill me the moment they find out I breathed a word of it to you.” Even though the mask on his face hadn’t moved, I could have almost sworn then that he was giving me a furious look. Tugging to free my wrist from his hand, I stepped backwards. That was the moment when he activated his contract again, the blue glow forming around him, pain suddenly screaming through my body like every cell was being ripped apart from the inside. I couldn’t tell where the pain was coming from, or if I was even standing up right anymore. Sound did not make it to my ears, nor light to my eyes; the pain was just so intense that nothing else mattered. There was only one thought in my brain coherent through the pain; don’t let him win.

I couldn’t let him get the better of me, even with this pain holding me down.

If he gets the better of me… if he…

“Dan?” I groaned at the voice, shifting away from it. “Dan, if you don’t open your eyes, I’m getting Xiao.”

“Xiao can’t get me here, I’m dead.” My voice was hoarse as I responded to the monotonous voice that sounded like Cai’s.

“You’re not dead,” Cai’s voice replied, and I opened my eyes immediately. Looking down at me was Cai’s pink heart shaped face, framed by curly brown hair. Groaning again, I rolled onto my side away from her, a damp cloth falling from my forehead as I did so.

“I don’t know which is worse then,” I muttered, staring at the floor of my apartment. “Cai… why are you here? How did I survive?”

“Why would I know?” Cai looked at me with a blank expression on her face as she said this, and I cursed at how annoyed that made me. If this lifeless doll was going to say things like that to me, the least she could do was act more like a person that would say those things.

“Cai, listen to me,” I suddenly felt a very deep need to get moving, urgency that made my stomach churn. “We need to-“

“Finally decided to join us did you, Dan?” Xiao spoke as he entered my apartment, his polished black shoes venting the man’s frustration as they noisily moved across the thinly carpeted floor. “Did you think I’d let you lie down on the job, especially after you let BK-201 get the jump on you?”

“I wasn’t-“ I cut myself off then as I realised something. “How did you know that it was BK-201 that got the jump on me?”

“I overheard you and Cai talking,” he replied after a short pause, a suspicious expression passing over his face. Something wasn’t right here, I’d never said that it was BK-201 – that annoying masked man – that was the one to attack me, so how did Xiao know that?

“Ludicrous, you couldn’t have overheard it because I never said it.” I watched him carefully as I sat up, feeling that my body ached in places I didn’t know it could.

“I see that the infamous Hilliard isn’t just the simple beauty she used to play herself up to be-“

“Don’t use that name, Xiao!” I shouted, angry in seconds when my former name came from his lips. Let the man say what he likes about me, about the person I was now, but I would not stand for him bad mouthing the good person I once was. “I’ll kill you if that name ever comes from your lips again…” I stopped as Cai grabbed my arm, but I didn’t need her warning, I saw the pistol Xiao was carrying the moment his hand moved for it.

“You? Kill me? Now _that_ is a laughable idea; Hilliard, The Eraser, killing someone. You, who could delete a man’s entire history faster than the blink of an eye?” Xiao smiled to himself as he shook his head, pausing in his monologue for a moment to do so. “I should have known that Hei wouldn’t kill you, he has become increasingly… unreliable recently.”

“Hei?” The name didn’t ring any bells, so why did Xiao mention it? Could it have been…?

“The masked man,” Cai whispered, her lips barely moving as I looked back at her.

“But never mind that,” Xiao spoke again. “The higher ups will deal with him soon enough. First I have two mistakes to correct.” Xiao aimed his gun square at me and pulled the trigger. The noise of it was so loud that I barely heard myself cry out as I was pushed back onto the floor, a dead weight landing on top of me. I couldn’t breathe as I tried mentally to find where I had been shot; how was I still alive when Xiao had been standing so close? He couldn’t be that bad of a shot… could he? “Damn that doll. Her programming wasn’t as strong as I thought. She can’t protect you twice, though.”

“No!” I cried out, my brain whizzing at high speeds as I activated my contract for the second time. My payment would be significantly worse now, but for the moment that didn’t matter to me. Xiao will pay for what he has done, for killing Cai – for trying to kill me – I’ll erase that horrible man from the face of existence, it’ll be as if he was never born!

Stumbling through the street, I couldn’t remember how I had gotten out of my apartment, or which way that I was going; only that I wanted to keep moving. There was something wrong with my payment, my mind was still clear. Last it had taken what it wanted from me all at once…

Cai, that poor girl, doll or not she haven’t deserved to go out that way. Yet, she had, she threw her life away to protect mine. That didn’t sound emotionless. Where do they go, the people like us? Was there a place out there for the Contractors and Dolls… a Heaven for the unnatural?

“I’m sorry,” I whispered as I bumped into yet another person on the street, not looking at them as I spoke. I’d clipped shoulders with a lot of people as I wondered, barely noticing they were there, I didn’t even look at this person as I went to pass them.

“Miss, are you alright?” The voice, I recognized it from somewhere, could it be?

“You’re the one they call ‘Hei’.” I couldn’t believe how numb I felt at this very moment; how I wanted to blame him for the loss of my team. BK-201 had failed to kill me twice, once when I was completely unable to defend myself. If he had just been successful, Cai wouldn’t have had to die for me – another Contractor would have been found, and I would have been free of my weakness that I had found in her.

“How did you-?” There was that steel edge in his voice, the one that BK-201 used. I looked up at him, and saw the face of a much softer man than the mask had let on. He’d known who I was, long before he had bumped into me earlier today. That felt so long ago now.

“I was betrayed. Xiao,” I frowned, not being able to recall what the man had looked like, not even in his last moment on this planet. “Xiao told me. He set everything up, got the Syndicate to send you, tried to kill me.”

“What are you going to do?”

“What can I do?” A desperate laugh escaped my throat. This was surreal.  Had he really just shown curiosity, concern? “My team is dead. There is no-one I can trust. I’m alo-“ I felt a sharp pain in my chest, my hand reaching up to grab the pained flesh, a warm liquid pouring through my fingers. It was impossible to breathe, every attempt to draw breath caused more pain – I felt my knees give way, but the ground never came in contact with my body.

What was this pain… where… where am I…

Breathe… must breathe… just take… another…

 

**End**


End file.
